Are there falcons versions of Ishar 1 & 2 that use 256 colors? Do the original ST versions manage more than 16 colors? I thought I remembered playing a bit of Ishar 1 on my ST/STE's a few years ago, and the graphics were good, very good, but they still seemed to be using 16 colors at a time. I've been playing all three Ishar games for a short while on the Falcon, and while Ishar 3 definitely looks like 256 colors, 1 and 2 seem to have much better color depth to me as well, though 2 is still better looking than 1. Do they use more colors on the Falcon? Am I playing an enhanced Falcon versions? They are from a Falcon software site.

And it shall come to pass, in the days when the Dark Hunt rides,
when the right hand falters and the left hand strays,
that mankind shall come to the Crossroads of Twilight and all that is,
all that was, and all that will be shall balance on the point of a sword,
while the winds of the Shadow grow.-From 'The Prophecies of the Dragon'

But I think the ST versions looked so damned impressive because they had a sort of trick overlay. You could notice when you move the mouse from the upper/scene area of the screen, and then moved it down over the character portion, it'd change colors. The Amiga version did not do that, since it could display 32 colors normally. I studied these visually for quite some time, they looked pretty much the same except for that mouse color changing.

You could clearly tell where the pallete change happened on the ST version of Ishar. Did Dungeon Master use VBL tricks, because it seemed to me to be 16 colors, it was all in how they used them. Granted, I could be way off there.

Dungeon Master and Ishar use VDL tricks to display more than 16 colors. You can see that at "sundown": view is darkened during the night (Ishar), or when your torches burnt out (DM). Still, party icons and lifebars remain undarkened.

Thus, from the view zone, you can determine where on the screen the palette changes are done.